CHAPTER ONE:
GREENPEACE, THE OCCUPATION OF ROCKALL AND THE PRE-HISTORY OF
WAVELAND

At 21:40 hours BST on the night of 10 June
1997, Greenpeace activists staged a dramatic occupation of the
barren and tiny island of Rockall (25 meters across and 20 meters
high) in the Atlantic Ocean - 450 kilometers from the Scottish
mainland. Rockall lies at the heart of the Atlantic Frontier, an
area earmarked for oil exploration. The strategic occupation was
part of Greenpeace's Atlantic Frontier campaign which aimed to bring
about a halt to oil exploration in the region.

Al, one of the three Greenpeace activists,
had this to say on the first morning of the crew's occupation of the
rock, "The seas around Rockall, potentially rich in oil, are
fought over by four nations - Britain, Denmark, Iceland and Ireland.
By seizing Rockall, Greenpeace claims these seas for the planet and
all its peoples. No-one has the right to unleash this oil onto our
threatened climate."

CHAPTER TWO:
THE FLAG IS RAISED ON
WAVELAND!

At dawn on the morning of 16 June, six days
after the initial occupation, the world was taken by surprise as the
sun rose on a new kind of country with Rockall as its capital.
Greenpeace had rejected complete British sovereignty over Rockall
and declared a new global state called Waveland.

The flag of the Global State of Waveland was
raised on the rock by the three Greenpeace activists Peter, Meike
and Al.

Following the flag raising ceremony
Waveland, the new Global country was summoned to life on the World
Wide Web.

With its one flat ledge less than 20 meters
above sea level and only around 4 by 2.5 meters wide, Rockall became
the world's smallest and most vulnerable capital city.

Speaking from new capital, Greenpeace
activist Peter said,

"There is another way to manage the
earth's resources: it is for the common good; Waveland gives people
who share that conviction a means of demonstrating it and of joining
the campaign to achieve it. For these purposes, we no longer
recognise the jurisdiction of the British Government, or any other
Government over this territory and we call on our citizens to
support our commitment to its protection."

Surfers across the planet were invited to
apply for Certificates of Citizenship. Citizenship of Waveland was
immediately offered to anyone prepared to take the pledge,

Without violence and by bearing
witness, to defend nature, to protect the global commons, to reform
industrialism, and to secure peace, believing in action, rather than
words.

Once these had been granted they were then
free to take part in Waveland activities such as on-line chat,
notice boards, elections. Other features were to unfold as the
campaign progressed.

The declaration announced the following
guiding principles for Waveland, "present power and past use of
nature confers a proportionate responsibility to act in its [the
environment's] defence and restitution; and that whenever any form
of economy becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government."

The three first citizens of Waveland called
on everyone who shared the ideals of protection rather than
exploitation, to become citizens.

Peter said, "We reject the governance
of a country which permits new oil exploration despite professed
concern for the climate. Waveland is a new kind of country designed
to protect the global commons rather than to exploit it. We hope
this is the start of a peaceful revolution. Waveland expresses every
person's right to oust destructive governance and replace it with a
new one, to put the climate before profits from oil."

Stressing that Greenpeace did not want to
own Rockall, Deputy Executive Director of the organisation Chris
Rose said, "Four nations want the oil around Rockall, we do not
recognise their right to develop it. We have told Tony Blair that we
don't want Rockall itself but that the oil should be set aside for
the common good. We are borrowing it until it is freed from the
threat of development."

CHAPTER
THREE: WAVELAND THRIVES -
CITIZENSHIP SWELLS TO OVER 15,000

Over the next few months in excess of 15,000
people from across the planet took the pledge and applied for their
certificates of citizenship.

Newcomers to Waveland were invited to visit
the Waveland Embassy and apply for their own Waveland passport. At
the Waveland Post Office Wavelanders were offered a free
personalised email address and the opportunity to participate in the
first Waveland elections.

Wavelanders posted nominations for the posts
of president, prime minister and a number of key ministerial
positions in the government of Waveland and, following the
nominations a free vote was held - the results of the elections can
be found in the Government section.

Six months following the founding of
Waveland, the community had taken on a life of its own. Wavelanders
from around the world met to participate in on-going discussions in
the bulletin board areas and arranged to meet fellow Wavelanders for
in depth, live debates. These sesssions often lasted for several
hours at a time and were joined by Wavelanders from all over the
world.

As news of the new global country spread
across the web, membership mushroomed to 15,000.

As new members came on stream the Waveland
community turned it's attention to new issues. One issue in
particular emerged and fuelled a heated debate - that issue
was MAI.

The Wavelanders had begun to address issues
which could no longer be contained under the catch-all banner of
"environmental issues".

However, attention to green issues had not
been abandoned.

Rather, the focus of attention had broadened
and deepened to take in other forms of rights abuse including, for
instance, human rights, labour rights and civil rights.

The debates over MAI brought together a
broad range of interest groups which found themselves making common
cause in opposition to a common enemy - the abuses of power by
multi-national corporations.

Globalisation is the term which is now used
to describe the complex of issues which created this furore in
Waveland in the late summer of 1998.

However, the globalisation debate was to be
foreshortened by an "off-shore" crisis.

CHAPTER
FOUR: WAVELAND, IN EXILE

Knowhaus, the new media company sponsoring
the Waveland experiment, was foundering, locked in the grip of an
irreconcilable management dispute.

Another factor made a significant
contribution to the impending crisis on Waveland..

Although Greenpeace's action at sea
had inspired the founding of Waveland, with the pressure group
subsequently proving broadly supportive of developments in Waveland,
they were not prepared to offer financial support to ensure
Waveland's survival.

The management crisis at Knowhaus
precipitated a financial crisis which proved impossible to resolve.
The company was subsequently liquidated in February 1999.

The consequences for Waveland were
catastrophic. The company server, containing all Wavelanders data,
contributions and email addresses, was impounded pending the
resolution of a bitter dispute with it's service provider.

Like the legendary city of Atlantis,
Waveland submerged, sinking without a trace.

Or rather, almost without a trace..

Reports were filtering through a group of
Wavelanders had surfaced on the discussion boards at Yahoo,
reminiscing about the good old days on Waveland, where they often
observed that although the Yahoo board were "adequate"
they lacked not only many of Wavelands wondrous functions, but
it's unique spirit of place.

CHAPTER FIVE : LONG
LIVE WAVELAND!

In the aftermath of Seattle and the debacle
surrounding the WTO talks, former Knowhaus staff began to discuss
the viability of salvaging Waveland. Perhaps this was the time to
pick up the debate where it had been left off... why not
re-float Waveland, this time with an exclusive and explicit
globalisation theme?

Only one obstacle
might stand in their way. They were well aware of the
odds against their securing the 'waveland' domain name. Nearly
a year had now elapsed since the Knowhaus crisis and the fate
of the domain name was unknown.

Astonishingly
it appeared to be available!

That was all that was needed to spur them to
action, to call Waveland back into being, and this is the end of the
story, dear reader, of how Waveland came to be salvaged from
it's watery grave.